William Bowen

“ It was Babadag.
“Not so fast, peddler,” said he; and then he saw my daughter, who was standing in the band of moonlight, most fairylike and beautiful. He brushed past me and stopped before her, gazing at her in astonishment and admiration.
“Beauty in tatters!” he said. “No wonder that even blind men are conquered. You make me forget the Shears. Surely there is no woman in Oogh so beautiful. Will you look on me kindly? I am powerful, and I offer you a share of my power. It is Babadag who speaks.” ”

“ To this mischance I owe all my misery; my happiness hangs on a button. Take the doublet, Solario, and find the thread which will withstand sorcery. Three months are allowed you. Here are the doublet and the button; guard them as you would your life; and may you return to receive my thanks and the fortune which awaits you.”
[15] With his left hand he placed the doublet and the button in my left hand. The perfume of the wine seemed to grow heavier; I was very drowsy; I tried to speak; I could not arouse myself; I was conscious of the eager smile of the Prince’s daughter, and I knew no more. ”

“ He gave a slow wink with one eye, ruffled his feathers, and flew away among the trees without a word.
“He’ll be back,” said the Painter, and in a little while old Sappy came back, and he was carrying in his beak the Apple-Seed Elf.
“Let me go!” cried the Elf, kicking and squirming, and owl dropped him to the ground and stood over him.
“What do you want?” piped the Elf, evidently frightened almost to death.
“Say the words!” growled the owl, in a deep hoarse voice. “Say the words that’ll change the butterfly back again, and say ’em before I count ten, or else I’ll eat you. ”

“ Freddie knew him. He was the "other Old Codger, as sly as a fox, who always had tobacco in his old tobacco-box." Freddie could hardly believe that that white-haired old gentleman could be as sly as a fox.
"My dear, dear friends!" said the Sly Old Fox. "What is so beautiful as the love of friends?" He stopped to glare at the Old Codger with the Wooden Leg, who looked away nervously. "The love of friends! Gathered together around the family hearth! How beautiful! It touches me, my friends, it touches me——"
"That's all right about that," said Toby. "For heaven's sake, let's look at the map!" ”

“ Suddenly they stopped, each with a hand at his ear, and looked up at the sky as if listening.
“Is there a stranger here?” cried one of them.
“A peddler and a maid!” shouted one of the crowd. “All tattered and torn!”
“With eyebrows?” cried the ballad singer.
“Yes! yes!” said several of the crowd together.
I did not like this sort of attention very well, and I was about to draw my daughter away, when the ballad singers faced with one accord in my direction and began to cry, “Buy our ballads! Ho, master Eyebrows! Buy our ballads! Welcome to Oogh, master Eyebrows!” ”

“ You're enchanted now, under the name of Queen Miranda."
"But Shiraz the Persian told us he would disenchant us, and he did."
"No, no. You were yourselves before, and now you are enchanted."
"My brain is in a whirl," said Queen Miranda. "Are we ourselves now, or were we ourselves before?"
"By crackey," said Toby, "it's too much for me, and I give it up. Anyway, what we want to know is, can you cure the Chevalier?"
"I can, and I will," said the old man. "There's nothing the matter with him, except that he isn't himself. As soon as he's himself again, he'll be well. ”

“ I couldn’t let you kill him! It can’t go on any longer! The eyebrows must be cut, father! It’s only to make you like the others! We’ll both be happier, oh, indeed we will! It’s only because I love you, father!”
“I didn’t think you would have done this, Figli, my son,” said the old man, gently. “You have put me in the power of my enemy. Ah, Figli, my son, my son!”
“I know it, I know it,” sobbed the boy, “but the lady will give the Shears to me, and I will cut the eyebrows myself, with my own hand. The peddler will do you no harm. You’ll be glad, father, afterward, indeed you will.” ”

“ His eyes opened wide and his jaw dropped; he was so astonished that he took his hand from Ketch's hair and put up his knife.
"That's the idea," said Aunt Amanda. "You're more of a man than I thought. Mr. Ketch, you had better get up."
"Madam," said Captain Lingo, making her a bow, "'tis a bold action and generous. I trust I am able to respond to it in kind. My duty to you, ma'am; your obedient humble servant. Ketch, thou white-livered dog, get up, and thank this lady for thy life." ”

“ But all around her, in the black soot of the chimney, were little sparks, like the sparks you see in the soot at the back of the fireplace when the fire is crackling on the hearth,—thousands of tiny sparks, and all of them getting dimmer as the wind died down more and more.
[7] Suddenly the wind sprang up again, stronger and stronger, and the harder the wind blew the brighter the sparks burned. Merrimeg had to hold on fast with her feet and back to keep from being blown out of the top of the chimney. ”

“ The Princess Sees the Shadow of an Old Woman
Through the crack of her closed door at the right of her shadow, another shadow was oozing in and spreading itself out across the wall toward her own. It took shape, and paused for a moment; it was the shadow of a bent old woman, stooping under a heavy bag, and holding out in one hand a kind of poker with a hook at the end.
The Princess held her breath. The stooping shadow stole slowly along the wall, and touched the Princess’s shadow with its poker. Instantly the Princess’s shadow began to move toward the other, and the other began to back away. ”

“ But danger is nothing to men like these,
When suddenly the lookout, a Portuguese
Who had better been below a-shelling peas,
Shrieked out, 'They are coming! By twos and threes!
On the starboard bow! We are lost!—"
"We're lost! we're lost! we're lost!" came a terrible cry from the forward part of the ship, as if in echo of Mr. Mizzen's song. "We're lost! The dippers! The dippers!"
Everyone jumped up, even Aunt Amanda. The Cabin-boy whispered in Freddie's ear, in great excitement, "N-n-n-now you'll s-see!"
A man came running down the deck, followed by all the skippers and mates. ”

“ King’s Fool, lying motionless beside the vat of dead leaves; and as I gazed at him where he lay, I saw, moving toward him across the bare pavement, the humped figure of his little monkey.
The genie, far above, kept just ahead of the whirlwind; the yellow funnel whirled after him directly across the vat and covered it and passed; and as it passed, all the dead leaves surged up into it in a furious gale, so that it was darkened with them; and the next moment the whirlwind was gone, and the square lay quiet in the sunshine.
“Come, Paravaine!” said I, and pulled my sister forth across the square. ”

“ They stopped beside the pool where Merrimeg had once tried to wash the black from her face. The trees were wide apart here, and Merrimeg, looking up, could see the bare spot in the sky directly overhead, where the lost star belonged.
“Where are you taking us?” said Pennie.
“I’m taking you to the gnomes’ house,” said Merrimeg. “We’ll soon be there. It’s two gnomes who’ve been very good to me; I know where they live. They’re the ones to help us.”
“Is one of them named Malkin?” said Florrie.
“And the other one Nibby?” said Pennie. ”

“ The people in them were apparently of all the nations of the earth; there were brown men and yellow men and black men, as well as white; men with slant eyes, with round eyes, with flat noses, with beak-noses, with wooly hair, with straight hair; there were turbans, and fezzes, and hoods, and white gowns, and coloured robes, and velvet jackets, and cotton blouses; and from all the venders rose such a hubbub as Freddie had never in his life heard before, except once in the Gaunt Street Theatre at home. ”

“ On the ground beside the hole lay the panther, its head on its paws. It watched us with sleepy eyes as we fled by.
In a moment we had reached the city gate and passed out. The Guardian was standing there, his face clouded with a frown, and his scimitar raised.
“Why do you flee?” said he.
“From the wrath of the people!” I cried. “Let us pass!”
“You cannot pass,” said he. His scimitar glittered in the sun.
“But we repent! We repent!” cried my sister.
“Too late, too late!” said the Guardian. “See!”
He pointed upward, and afar off in the sky appeared a black speck, speeding toward us.
“The genie!” ”

“ He restored the cutlass to the Practitioner, who raised it high and gave a swinging slash downward with it, as if to test his eye and arm. The Practitioner then rolled his right shirt-sleeve up to his shoulder; he was the largest man in the party, and his arm was the arm of a blacksmith.
"Stop!" cried Mr. Punch. "One moment! Captain Lingo! You are a Henglishman, aren't you?"
"I am an Englishman," said the Captain, swelling out his chest. "Long live King James!"
"Hi am a Henglishman also," said Mr. Punch, swelling out his chest. "You carn't murder a fellow-countryman in cold blood, now can you? ”

“ I suppose you’d like to do nothing all day but eat and be outdoors, and never have to bother about washing and dressing and sweeping and dusting and running errands,—I suppose that’s what you’d like?”
“Well,” said Merrimeg, “I would like it pretty well. I hate to sweep and——”
“All right!” cried the Apple-Seed Elf, and he sprang from her hand onto a branch near her shoulder. “I’ll fix it for you! I’ll see to it! You’ll never have to dress or do any lessons any more,—now then! Caterpillar! Go away, child, and come up, caterpillar! Come up, caterpillar! Come, come, come!” ”

“ The Magic Doublet Protects the Prince Against the Knitters of Eyebrows and Against Goolk the Spider
I laughed inwardly, for I was sure that, under the protection of my doublet, my eyebrows would reappear as fast as they could be plucked out. And indeed, from the snort of rage given by Babadag, I soon knew that my eyebrows were safe. I could hear the eight tailors whispering together, as if in dismay.
“Goolk!” said Babadag, in the same angry whisper, “sting me this false peddler!”
“No, no, father,” said Figli. “Not that, oh, please!” ”